A plea from Richard Marshall, Chair of the Bearwood Traders
Hi all- as you may be aware we are going to go full throttle for the Portas High St Competition. We only have 6wks to get our application in so we are very limited on any consultation time that we hav…e so as a start if you don’t use Bearwood as your main shopping area , could you please comment and encourage others to comment on the following 2 questions and please be as constructive with your replies as possible
1. (If you don’t) Why don’t you use Bearwood as your main shopping area?
2. What would YOU do to remedy this situation?
I do main shop at Bearwood but I think considersation should be given to opening up toilet facilities at the King Head end, signposting them and put a car park sign up so people know there is access to a CP at that a end. I know the access would be via what used to be the Burtons corner.
We don’t use Bearwood as our main shopping area as you can only park for free for 2 hours at Aldi. We would like to patronize the cafes and coffee houses of Bearwood, however once we have shopped at Aldi, had a walk up to Tesco to look at their offers, and had a look in other stores that is usually the 2 hours used up. We cannot linger for a coffee or a cake or baguette as Aldi DO issue parking tickets as I know only too well having been stung elsewhere in Birmingham. If the time that you can park in Aldi was extended to 3 or 4 hours that would encourage people to stay and spend money in Bearwood. The idea of parking on Bearwood Primary School playground is excellent and should be extended to other schools in the area if possible and possibly the Sandon Road Methodist Church car park. What about creating a car park on the overgrown car park at the former Avery Sports Ground on Sandon Road at the top of Barnsley Road too by approaching the owners of that site (Persimmon Homes?). I know that the Avery site is possibly too far away from the main Bearwood shopping centre, however a free car park there may encourage commercial activity around the King’s Head area of the town as would allowing shoppers to park in the Lordswood School car parks at weekends.
There are too many shops of the wrong sort – pawn brokers, fast food outlets (especially chicken, the bones from which are left all over the pavements), shops selling all kinds of tack, charity shops and also many vacant premises. It just isn’t pleasurable to shop there and there are not enough useful shops to make a visit worthwhile.
I realise it isn’t easy in a recession, but nicer coffee shops, cleaner pavements, more attractive shops (such as independant gift shops selling higher quality items) would encourage me to shop on Bearwood High Street (Harborne is a better example of a more attractive high street in this area, but I suspect the Bearwood demographics prevent Bearwood reaching this state).
Also, preventing shops displaying lots of “tat” actually on the pavements outside would make it easier to walk around, especially with a buggy, and make it look less like a developing country.
We live locally, so parking is not an issue. We do use the Bearwood shops both for convenience and to support the local traders, but do tend to concentrate on the Aldi section of the High Street. I think we need to draw both local residents and visitors to the Kings Head end of the High Street. The street market was a good idea, but few people knew it was there and tended not to wander up to that end of the High Street. Bearwood is still suffering from the loss of Woolworths at that location. Attracting similar businessess to the top end of the High Street would be my priority.
I agree with Alex, the problem with the High Street is the poor quality of the shops and high number of fast food outlets, pawn brokers etc. I only occasionally shop on the High Street, mainly to use a butchers and pick up a few things when I don’t need to do a full supermarket shop. I have, however, recently started maternity leave and would like to use the opportunity to shop on the High Street more often but there are very few decent shops and it is not a clean place to push a new baby around.
To improve, the High Street needs more variety; cafes (not of the greasy spoon or fast food variety), gift shops, a deli – the sort of shops which will attract both local people and others to visit. It also needs a good clean and for the shop fronts to be tidied up. When the shops along Three Shires Oak Road all fitted cream shutters it really lifted the look of that section of road – a similar approach on the High Street would make a difference. Bearwood is a lovely place to live with Lightwoods Park and Warley Woods – it should knock spots off Harborne – but the High Street lets the area down.
Great that you are bidding for the money, we would love to see the High Street improved. We use it for some of our smaller shopping, eg. Co-op, greengrocers, Boots and Johnsons.
Could the traders association do some form of local market analysis to demonstrate demand for a different type of shop to potential traders? If Bearwood has lots of creative types, artisans, young professionals, families etc, then why are there lots of shops catering for a very small number of people – eg. fast food, arcades etc? We are probably losing a lot of people to Harborne.
To make it more attractive for regular visits we’d suggest:
- Good quality places to eat that are cheap enough to eat there regularly (like Arco Lounge and Maison Mayci in Harborne- could either of these open a branch in Bearwood?)
- Places that attract people (eg. mums) to meet together during the day eg. coffee shops, bookshops. Publicised areas where babies could be fed or changed.
- A couple of ‘upmarket’ food shops eg. deli, fishmongers, organic etc
- A better atmosphere in the evenings – after 5pm it’s just cars driving along a road.
- More events showing local arts and crafts, like the Christmas Crafty Muthas event – but also link it to offers in local shops to generate business around the event
Is there a way of creating an identity to specific parts of the High Street? At the moment it feels like a fairly random collection of shops.
This bit from Alex Poynton’s comment – “I realise it isn’t easy in a recession, but nicer coffee shops, cleaner pavements, more attractive shops (such as independant gift shops selling higher quality items) would encourage me to shop on Bearwood High Street (Harborne is a better example of a more attractive high street in this area, but I suspect the Bearwood demographics prevent Bearwood reaching this state).”
…just about sums it up for me. It sounds like we would all like the shopping area to be more like that of Harborne. Even though Bearwoodians collectively will not have as much spare cash as Harbornians, the fact that so many of us do seem to spend money in Harborne indicates that is must be possible to support a few high-quality independent shops here, or even something non-independent but good like a Costa. How great would it be to have a good coffee shop open into the evening (Arco Lounge etc), a place to buy organic/local/niche food (various in Harborne) and a really nice bakery (Fallen Angel)?
The potential is there, but a problem I see is that too often when a new business opens up (ESPECIALLY along Three Shires Oak Road), it seems destined for failure from the start. Questionable market research based on offering + location, unprofessional signage / outside appearance, uninviting interiors, poor marketing, etc. Some shop spaces along Three Shires Oak seem to be revolving doors for businesses, and this doesn’t help the situation (especially if it’s yet another nail place or fried chicken emporium, no offence to those in the nail decor or fried chicken industries).
I do like the charity shops, though!! I don’t feel these detract from an area and we like going to the Harborne ones as well. The difference there is that after we’ve checked those out, we’ve got plenty of choices of somewhere nice to sit and have a drink afterwards.
The parking is terrible and also the variety of shops leaves alot to be desired. With the demolition of the Talbot there is a derth of good pubs in Bearwood, look at moseley and harbourne they have about 10 each and they act as good eating venues by day and entertainment/social hubs in evening.
People get in habit of leaving Bearwood to go out which isn’t healthy for it’s local economy and reputation.
I love Bearwood and will continue to shop there no matter what however no more chicken shops please!!
1. Why don’t you use Bearwood as your main shopping area?
I generally DO use Bearwood, because as a resident I have great loyalty to the area and want to support local traders. I use the Co-Op, Aldi, Iceland, We are Mud (coffee shop), Beauty Works, NX newsagents & bookshop, Boots, TC Hayes, Alan Warwick or Paul South Butchers and Linella Dog Grooming Salon. There are very good bargains to be had in some of these shops, especially those trading locally. However, shopping in Bearwood is not as pleasant an experience as it was in the past because of the monotony of fast-food outlets and attendant problems of litter, and also the general air of neglect brought about by shuttered shops, dirty and untidy shop fronts, and a preponderance of low-grade shops such as pawnbrokers, charity shops, cheap supermarkets, off licences (far too many!) and sweet centres, and Romanian Big Issue sellers. This gives a poor impression of Bearwood and more variety is needed. Whereas I used to be able to buy everything I needed in Bearwood, I now find myself making regular trips to Harborne for a more pleasant and varied shopping experience. The loss of our big post office (sited in Safeways) and Woolworths has been a death blow to Bearwood.
What would YOU do to remedy the situation?
I was at the meeting, so I have the benefit of our discussion but in summary:
1. Through CPOs, force landlords of vacant shops to depart, and chase other landlords to improve the use and maintenance of their premises.
2. Encourage letting of flats above shops to increase footfall and general neighbourliness on the high street.
3. Pedestrianise at least part of the high street (say the section around St Mary’s) to reduce pollution and make for a safer, more pleasant shopping experience. This has worked for New Street but is rare in suburban centres.
4. Offer pop-up shops to small, creative enterprises (of which Bearwood has many!) Artisan bakers, Crafty Muthas, music groups, artists etc could collaborate in a shared space at subsidised rent. Their success would encourage the growth in these small-scale, independent operations.
5. Link the high street to our greatest assets of Lightwoods Park and Warley Woods, for example by introducing a Bearwood History Trail (Smethwick Heritage could help with this) so that people drawn into Bearwood by our unique ‘gateway’ of green spaces are then induced to c0me to the high street and spend money locally, much as we did for Bearwood on Ice. This trail could, for example, lead shoppers to our ‘secondary’ high street on Three Shires Oak Road where more leisure-oriented shops such as Webbs, Russell Gorman, Azzarri Too and The Old Bakery could thrive.
6. Canvass local traders for whom a niche in Bearwood exists: for example, a new retirement village opening on the Hagley Road should be an opportunity to increase the sort of shops that will attract older people.
7. While not wishing to replicate Harborne, we need to encourage a critical mass of leisure-based shops perhaps through pop-up shops or incentivised rents: Harborne scores because there is a wide choice of pubs, bars, coffee shops etc, not just one or two of each. The focus should initially be on VISTORS NOT SHOPPERS to Bearwood – people need to feel attracted to coming to Bearwood in its own right, as they will then spend time – and their money – with our local traders. The spread of available shops needs to be sufficiently wide to cater for a wider variety of shopper needs, and unique enough to be interesting, different and not a clone of every other high street in the UK.
8. I do not believe that increased parking will materially increase the number of visitors to Bearwood. The parking in Harborne is terrible, yet it is heaving at on Saturdays, lunchtimes and even busy in the evening.
9. In the longer term, look at the potential offered by transition town status, including the introduction of a local currency for spending with local traders. This has worked well in Brent in London and Lewes on the south coast.
10. Finally: my dream is for The Barleycorn to be converted to a cinema, which would complement our existing 1930s buildings of the swmming baths and the library and attract evening custom, which could then be supplemented by local bars, coffee shops and restaurants. If any entrepreneurs, business angels or lottery winners are reading this, please think on! An excellent example is the Duke of Yorks in Brighton, an independent cinema that is at the heart of its thriving community in Kemptown.
I don’t believe we can revive Bearwood as it was, We need instead to make our high street reflect its community, attract incoming vistors because of this unique quality, and cherish the remaining local traders we still have before we all get taken over by Tescopoly.
I too agree with many of the comments relating
To harborne. I will go there with other mums and
Our toddlers/babies and spend a couple of hours in a cafe over lunch. Afterwards I tend to do some food shopping and pop into quite a few shops. I also know I can get birthday presents there which is harder in bear wood. A community kind of cafe on the high street would be brilliant especially if it had a small area with toys and books. We often go to bourneville just because the community cafe at rowheath is so good. As others have said if those cafes opened some evenings too sure they would do well at weekends especially if they organised comedy nights etc It was a real shame when attic us closed.
For me Aldi doesn’t help as its not really where I would choose to do a big shop and the co op is fine but a bit small.
Local currency idea is definitely worth a try too.
Well said!